It is an investment, not unlike stocks and bonds.  

@Chris May,You're really whipping a dead horse.The whole principle behind mortgage acceleration involves paying the principle off faster.How it is done is irrelevant.

What @Anna Sagatelova said about Cleveland properties is also true in Akron. 90% of the housing stock in the city of Akron was built before 1970 and there are quite a number of really fine A++ older homes especially in west Akron.

Hi Jack, there's a lot of old stock - I've traveled there and seen it myself, but word is out of Syracuse and it has shown up in various BP "lists" over the past 12 months as well.

YOLOGeneral principle of taxation: to take a deduction, you mustA. be legally response for this payment and B. actually make the paymentThe conclusion should be obvious.

I agree it’s a stalemate right now but in addition to the affordability, the issue is that it’s easy to make 5% (after tax) in the stock market, and has been for several years.  

I can tell you that being around new construction the past 12 years, I would say 1/4 of the projects we have been apart from residential to commercial will experience delays to MFGs out of stock, HOAs changing their specs, Cities changing their specs, Weather 2-3Xs budgeted rain delays, Subcontractor injuries and death.....Then Hurricane Harvey in Houston are.....WOAH  major delays...I have seen it.We are happy to be providing funding to DCGI's BTR community members, many have gotten their applications in already and look forward to helping the rest of yall accomplish your real estate goals. 

I'm also considering Halethorpe because it's a good commuter location.Some people really like supporting the city in which case , northeast Baltimore would seem to the best place to buy a single family, in my opinion given the taxes situation and given that none of those areas are walkable I’d rather just be in the county and pay Lower taxes, and it’s not like northeast Baltimore is much that much cheaper than Baltimore county, hathorpe is mixed, arbutus is nice, I hate the housing stock there, would rather be in Catonsville if I was considering western Baltimore county. 

If this is not something you're interested in delving into and learning to a high degree, then investing in publicly traded REITs would be another good option for you, which have historically returned about 13.5 per cent Per year over the past 50 years (1977-present), beating the US stock market by two per cent and even beating private real estate investing by 4 per cent (that's compared with the average real estate investor, not the experts here at Bigger Pockets).

Seeing as how in today's society the rich get richer and incomes aren't keeping up with the stock market, people in rich areas can afford richer rents.